According to the survey, efforts
to expand a “coaching culture” within
these organizations include embedding
coaching into talent- and performance-management processes, developing
leaders and managers at all levels to
be coaches, and using incentives and
rewards to reinforce demonstrated
coaching behaviors.

(The survey also found an uptick in
external-coaching rates in recent years,
with organizations paying an average
upwards of $600 per hour at the
CEO and C-suite levels, and rates for
coaches working at the levels directly
below CEO going up since 2014.)

“We’ve [done] this type of study
three times in the past six years, and the
number of companies [implementing
internal coaching programs] is very
similar over those three studies,”
says Amy Abel, managing director
of human capital at the Conference
Board. “That tells me that this is not a
fad. We know now that a personalized
and customized approach to leadership
development is more impactful. And
internal coaching happens to fit that
description very well.”

Critical Choices

Adopting such an individualized
style of leadership development was
the impetus for initiating the Mayo
Clinic’s program, which has turned out
roughly 30 internally certified coaches
in its six-year existence.

That’s an average of five coaches
a year, a number that becomes more
impressive when considering what
these busy leaders have to do to earn
the title of coach, says Gill.

“[Participants] have to be willing to
commit to a nine-month certification
process,” which includes rigorous
360-degree pre-assessments to
determine their skill and affinity for
coaching, and a two-day workshop that
“gives our coaches the opportunity
to learn the basics, demonstrate their
coaching skills and get feedback” from
peers, says Gill.

Naturally, choosing the right
individuals is critical to building a
successful internal coaching program,
and to developing capable leaders.

HR leaders should spearhead that
process, which is likely to uncover
viable candidates from within their own
function, says Abel.

“I’d say that many internal coachesare HR professionals,” she says,“so, in some cases, it’s a matter ofself-selecting; an HR practitioneridentifying him or herself as aIn considering candidates fromother areas of the organization, HRprofessionals must look at how they havedeveloped people in the past, says Abel.

“Is an internal candidate known
to be a people manager?” she says.
“Are [candidates] known to have
team-development skills? Have they
done coaching before? These are the
questions you have to ask.

BY MARK McGRAW In 2010, the Mayo Clinic board of directors wanted to see the Rochester, Minn.-based healthcare provider sharpen its focus on developing leadership talent from within. “There were discussions at the board level around succession planning and what we could do to ensure that we have a strongexecutive-talent pipeline goingfor ward,” says Priscilla Gill, managerof leadership and organizationdevelopment at Mayo.

Recognizing the need to groom its
future leaders, the board charged the
current Mayo executive leadership team
and Gill’s leadership and organization
development function with “making sure
this happened,” she says. “So, we decided
to complement our existing external
team of coaches with a cadre of internal
coaches, to help us get there faster.”

Recent research suggests a growing number of companies aredeveloping their own internal coaches to help groom executive talent.

In the six-plus years since, Mayo
Clinic has relied increasingly on
internal coaches to help develop
the organization’s leaders. And, if
recent research is any indication, a
growing number of companies are
taking or will soon be taking this
more personalized—and more cost-effective—approach to mentoring
executive-level talent.

181 global organizations. The findings
revealed that 69 percent of these
companies currently use internal
coaches to “proactively build the
next generation of leaders.” Among
those not currently utilizing internal
coaches, 69 percent say they intend to
do so in the coming years.